The Joyous Dead
by Marionette008
Summary: He stood there, in the half demolished coffee shop he once called his safe haven. In front of him, the person who was basically his family. He wanted to go home, he wanted his story not to be a tragedy. What should have happened at the end of root A


**The Joyous Dead**

**_A/N: "Le Mort joyeux"_ by Charles Baudelaire**  
**This is how it should have ended even though I'll hate myself after I write this because plot convenience.**  
**Spoilers for the anime, obviously**  
**This was a product of me doing my book report on Baudelaire and he's really depressing**  
**Hideneki if you squint really hard, like really hard**  
**First ever TG fic because jesus I'm fricking angry**  
**Little sad with a twist to the ending**  
**Read it for the ending**  
**Hide is love**  
**Hide is life**

* * *

He smelled him before he even saw him. The wonderful homey smell of friendship and lovingness that always radiated from within the human. But now, sadly, the smell was mixed with the stench of blood.

The helicopters that were passing outside illuminated the room. That was when he saw the human finally. _Hide._

"Yo, Kaneki."

He was smiling, somewhat sadly, at the half ghoul. His features softened even though Kaneki heard the blood drip down to the floor from somewhere on the boy. His hair had grown out but his brown eyes stayed the same- full of love and admiration for his friend. Trusting even in the presence of a murderer.

Kaneki gasped and let out a small whimper, he quickly covered his left eye that had made itself known with a dizzying throb. If he were to look in the mirror right now, without a doubt there would be the black and red eye staring back at him. He hated it so much. The pulsing veins and the blood red pupil, he still couldn't control it- even less now that the half kakuja was in the game. His eyes had lost their hopeful doe-likeness a while ago. Now they had adapted a look of dull ache that seemed to come from within.

"I knew."

Kaneki was startled out of his own destructive observations by the other's voice. It was filled to the brim with sadness that seemed to mix with a hope of some kind.

"Hide," Kaneki started. He wanted to turn away, not to let the other see him this way. He needed to do something but he couldn't leave the boy all alone and bleeding in the middle of a warzone.

Another beam of light shone through the window. This time Kaneki saw the way Hide was clutching at his side, below his ribs. There was more blood splattering the floor now, and more blood still dripped.

"Yeah, I knew." Hide started to approach him but Kaneki backed up.

"Hide, don't." He made an aborted motion to swat Hide's hand away when it reached for him but he couldn't bring himself to go through with it.

Hide gently pried his hand away from the monstrous red eye and put his own hand on Kaneki's cheek. He briefly frowned at his friend but smiled afterward.

"I wanted to thank you Kaneki, for saving my ass after Nishio beat the crap out of me." The boy said and Kaneki was left gaping at his friend.

"You-" Kaneki started but quickly closed his mouth and stared down at the floor. There was a red puddle gathered there, it was expanding quickly and steadily.

"I was playing dead, thanks for going all out like that." Hide's warm hand was still caressing his cheek and he couldn't help but feel some of the tension leave his shoulders.

Just as he started to relax, the hand was gone and clutching at the blond boy's wound. Hide let out a pained grunt and bent over.

"Hide-" Kaneki hurriedly supported his friend's form.

"Hah, guess I got a little careless out there." Hide groaned out with much difficulty. "Kaneki, come on, let's go home." He smiled up at the white haired teen.

Kaneki felt tears gather at the corners of his eyes, he felt them as they glided down his cheeks. They fell onto the barely alive blonde in his arms. He couldn't let Hide die; he wanted to protect him- all of them. He wanted to do some good for the world, for his friends that were the only thing he had. He wanted to get stronger and yet he only managed to crumple and break, as fragile as glass.

"We're going home Hide," Kaneki stood up, but as he did- he fell right back down. The sudden dizziness he felt was overwhelming, he could barely lift his head. His eye started to wander and convulse painfully. The tears falling from his left eye were red, he noted only half aware of what he was seeing.

There was warmth and there was light. The whole café was bathed in a red glow; it hurt his eyes that were adjusted to the darkness. He looked around through the haze that had invaded his senses. He could feel Hide's pulse slowing down, weakening with every passing minute.

He couldn't protect him; he couldn't even save him now. He knew an ending when he saw one; he's read enough books to know when a tragedy was nearing its end. This was the finale of his story, he only wished that he could have had the time to say goodbye to Touka and Hinami. He wished but wishes weren't granted to monsters like him.

The flames were getting closer as he sat there with a dying Hide in his lap. Tears fell freely from his eyes in rivulets; they landed on Hide's serene looking face. Was it finally over, are the credits going to start rolling?

He placed his forehead onto Hide's and closed his eyes; he felt the fire all around.

"I'm sorry Hide, I couldn't bring you home." He whispered and clutched the body in his arms tighter.

* * *

Pain, there was a lot of pain. He blinked but he was unable to see. He ran a hand across his eyes in an attempt to clear his vision.

After a few moments he let his hand fall and tried again. He was in a white room, a hospital? He looked around and saw a chair with a book on it- _Les Fleurs du mal_, he noticed the writing. There must have been someone watching over him, somebody stupid enough to stick around.

On shaky legs he stood up and went to the window, he pulled back the curtains- light invaded his head and he shielded his eyes with his forearm momentarily. Looking around, he concluded that he was somewhere in the 2nd ward. Curiosity overcame the pain that came with moving. He was going to turn around and walk out the room when the sound of shattering glass startled him. He clutched the wall in order to steady his shaking legs.

"Kaneki!" Came a voice all too familiar.

He turned around as fast as his head would let him and gasped. "I thought-"

The owner of the voice came running to him, he ushered the boy in the flimsy hospital gown back to the bed.

"You shouldn't be standing, you just woke up!"

"I thought- you… what?" He looked at his friend, _Hide, _who was alive and smiling happily.

"Kaneki what do you remember?" Hide asked with a concerned frown.

"I thought you- we- were dead?!" He pulled his friend into a tight hug and sobbed into his shoulder.

"Nah, Kaneki, we're okay." Hide hugged him back and stroked his white hair.

"But how?" Kaneki's voice was muffled by his friend's shoulder.

"As far as I know, they took pity on us. Dragged us from the burning building and transferred us to a hospital, you were out cold for almost a month and a half." Hide said.

"They who?" Kaneki looked at him suspiciously.

"The CCG," Hide said with a tight-lipped smile.

There was a knock on the door and a man with white hair and glasses wearing a long coat and carrying a briefcase walked in. No doubt a dove. The man shot a glance to the coffee mug that was in pieces on the floor.

Kaneki tensed up and hid behind Hide.

"Arima-san!" Hide exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Hideyoshi." The man stated with a curt nod.

"What are you doing here?" Hide pulled Kaneki closer to himself- assuming the worst.

"I'm here to talk to you about the Quinx initiative." The man's glasses flashed in the early morning light.

**_Fin_**


End file.
